One day i was just surfing the net and
suddenly a killer wave site took me to
a new land called java programming for
guru. So i just looked around and found
Developing Professional Java Applets
web page
Tricks of the Java Programming Gurus
web page
Hacking Java: The Java Professional's Resource Kit
Sorry not avaible
Have fun!!
[ November 11, 2001: Message edited by: Frankie ]

Is anyone interested in Java? I was playing recently with JNI and Allegro - using my system you can now write Allegro programs in Java*

Pete

• Provided those programs only use the function 'putpixel' - there's a lot still to do!

I've never really bothered caring about Java, since my main interest is making video games, and I've never found C++ lacking in that department. Anyone wanna take this opportunity to sell me on why I should bother learning it?

Pardon my long essayish thing here. Since Chris asked, I figured I could shed some light on his situation by sharing some information about all possibilities. For my Java arguments, I will mainly consider it for its web-page applet abilities. Java's not that great for standalone apps and there's other options if you need portability.

So Java, Flash and ActiveX (as well as a few lesser known methods) are your main choices for making browser applets, so how to choose...

Flash is more point-and-click oriented (IIRC, FlashScript is almost entirely programmable while never touching a keyboard) so unless you really dig deep or get creative, you have less control, and it lacks that sort of brute force feel that programmers tend to like. But that also makes it quite easy to use. Plus, I don't know if Flash players exist for other OSes like BeOS (I'm pretty sure they exist for Linux and Mac though).

ActiveX can be done in C++, Visual Basic and maybe Delphi so the language choice is good. I think it has a speed advantage on Java and Flash but the reason for that isn't a positive one: it's extremely non-portable. ActiveX controls are compiled in native Windows code. Furthermore, the last I knew, you needed a plugin to view ActiveX controls if you use a browser other than Internet Explorer. ActiveX is also the only one of the three that can (in its browser form) access a local hard drive. Obviously that's a mixed blessing.

Java is the most portable (except maybe BeOS again...) and rather robust. But it's also slow (in this case, portable also means interpreted) and occasionally confusing to the C++ vet. It's the only one of the three that can make a standalone application without imbedding it into something else (ActiveX) or bundling a player (Flash).

Since cost is usually an issue: Java's compilers and runtimes are free. ActiveX may be doable without MSVC but I wouldn't want to try, so to use C++, you'll need MSVC. There does exist however a free version of VB that will only compile to ActiveX controls (but will interpret anything else from within the IDE). I also think that Delphi is now free for personal use. Correct me if I'm wrong. Finally, save for really simple things like FlashTyper, Flash will cost several hundred bucks for the full app or from $50-$100 for a watered down third party program that exports to Flash format.

OK, I may be a little biased though I tried not to be. All of them are good technologies if you want to make web applets. It's just a matter of your needs and your funds.

All right, pardon my huge ramblings. I'm done now.

"you can't have two classes that refer to each other."

Uh ... are you sure about that? It sure seems to work for me.

Uh ... did I miss something here? It compiles just fine.

Strange ... I'm using 1.3.0_02 ...
code:E:\>type A.java
public class A {
private B b;
}
E:\>type B.java
public class B {
private A a;
}
E:\>javac A.java
E:\>javac B.java
E:\>

I hate Java - I've had to use it "professionally". Then again, I'm not the best at it, but it is fun to use it to write Java applets.

SPEED Online

I've had to use Java to write business applets to display ridiculous graphs that upper Management wanted...

ummm...you sure? i've had programs that have crashed becaue of this, is safer than c++(i think) but it still can happen

i have taken a couple university courses in java and they always recommended the sun documentation, and i've never had any trouble with it, found it quite useful actually.

I was pretty pissed off when I found out that all the computer classes at my school switched to java. I didn't know anything about java.
But now after three classes, I like to program in it, but it still is a terrible system. Of course I've only done console programming.
One plus is that it is portable. Well this is true because each os has its own interpreter. Kinda like a basic program.
I use forte, just for the editing, I still compile and run everything in command line. I got too many errors and lock ups otherwise.
Bob, It also compiled with no errors.
There are so many good classes that come with java, that I wish these classes came with C++ also.
You don't have to bother with memory. I've done so much OOP in java, but I have no idea how to do it in C++.
One simple thing is creating an object in java
code:
class Thang
{
private int p;
public Thang(int v)
{
p=v;
}
public int getThang()
{
return p;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Thang t = new Thang(5);
System.out.println(t.getThang());
}
}

So how would I do that in C++? How would I create/free the memory? I've been learning so many good things in these classes, but have no idea how to convert from java to C++.
[ November 13, 2001: Message edited by: DanielH ]

I think they switched because java is easier to use and port to all systems. Oh and its free.

If they taught C++, which one would they teach? Which compiler?

Ah, I think I know why it didn't compile my Java files - the classpath was set up wrongly: it didn't look for java/class files in the current directory, but only in the obj directory! Well now it works perfectly! (a bit late though )